General Motors Co. Chief Financial Officer Ray Young has been elected to the GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co.’s board of directors and is expected to play a major role in efforts to restore the hard-pressed Korean subsidiary to profitability, GMDAT President and CEO Mike Arcamone says.

Young, 47, who drew intense criticism from the White House auto task force for exceptionally weak leadership leading up to GM’s bankruptcy filing earlier in the year, was named vice president of GM International Operations by GM Chairman Ed Whitacre earlier this month. He starts the new job Feb. 1.

He will be replaced by Chris Liddell, an engineer by training, who has served as CFO at Microsoft Corp. since May 2005.

Young’s election to the GMDAT board took effect Dec. 4, although the announcement was not made public until yesterday in a statement by Arcamone in Korea.

Young is tasked with leading GMIO’s finance organization and will report to Tim Lee, who is replacing Nick Reilly as president of international operations, which is based in Shanghai. Reilly now heads GM Europe.

“Ray Young will help drive the change needed at GM Daewoo to make the company profitable in 2010,” Arcamone says. “His depth of knowledge of the global automotive industry and his financial skills will benefit the entire company.”

GM increased its stake in GMDAT Oct. 23, when it invested $416 million to purchase additional shares offered in an equity rights issue. The parent company now owns 70.1% of the Korean subsidiary, which is tapped as the auto maker’s global design and engineering center for small cars.